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Data Transmission

Data and Computer Communications

by William Stallings
Eighth Edition

Networks and
Communication Click to3edit Master subtitle style
Chapter
Department
Transmission Terminology

Data transmission occurs between a transmitter & receiver via

some medium
Types of communications
direct link : no intermediate devices.
Types of communications:
1) point-to-point : direct link , only 2 devices share link
2) Point –to- multipoint : more than two devices share the link, one
sender and multiple recipients. eg: voice conferencing, one person
will be talking but many others can listen.
3) Simplex : only in one direction , there is one sender and one
receiver; the sender and receiver cannot change roles. eg.
Television ,.
4) half duplex : either direction, but only one way at a time, eg.
police radio, A walkie-talkie
5) full duplex : both directions at the same time , eg. telephone
Frequency, Spectrum and Bandwidth
Time domain concepts
 analog signal
 various in a smooth way over time
 digital signal
 maintains a constant level then changes to another
constant level
 periodic signal
 pattern repeated over time
 aperiodic signal
 pattern not repeated over time
Analogue & Digital Signals
Periodic Signals
Sine Wave

peak amplitude (A)

 maximum strength of signal
 volts
frequency (f)
 rate of change of signal
 Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second
 period = time for one repetition (T)
 T = 1/f
phase ()
 relative position in time
Varying Sine Waves s(t) = A sin(2ft +)
Wavelength ()
•is distance occupied by one cycle b, or, put another way, the
distance between two points of corresponding phase of two
consecutive cycles.
•assuming signal velocity v have  = vT

•or equivalently f = v

especially when v=c

 c = 3*108 ms-1 (speed of light in free space)

Wavelength ()
Frequency Domain Concepts

signal are made up of many frequencies

components are sine waves
Fourier analysis can shown that any signal is made up of
component sine waves
can plot frequency domain functions
Addition of Frequency Components (T=1/f)

c is sum of f & 3f   
Spectrum & Bandwidth

spectrum
 range of frequencies contained in signal , eg: Fig 3.4c, it
extends from f to 3f.
absolute bandwidth
 width of spectrum , eg : 2f in Fig 3.4c
DC Component
 component of zero frequency
 DC Component
No DC component ,
Average amplitude
of zero

DC component =1
Nonzero average
amplitude
Frequency Domain Representations

freq domain function of Fig 3.4c

 Data Rate and Bandwidth
Data rate: is the amount of data that is moved from one
place to another in a given time. (bps) , Data rate=2*f
Effective bandwidth(or bandwidth ): is the actual speed
at which data can be transmitted on a connection.
any transmission system has a limited band of frequencies
this limits the data rate that can be carried
square have infinite bandwidth.
limited bandwidth increases distortion
have a direct relationship between data rate & bandwidth
Sine Waves s(t) = A sin(2ft +)
Figure 3.7 (a) & (b)
 Data Rate Calculation

Suppose that we are using a digital transmission system that is capable

of transmitting signals with a bandwidth of 4 MHz. Let us attempt to transmit
a sequence of alternating 1s and 0s as the square wave of Figure.What
data rate can be achieved? We look at three cases
 Data Rate Calculation
Case 1
 Bandwidth 4MHz, use the sine wave of Fig. 3-7 (a)
 4MHz = 5f – f  f = 1MHz
 Data rate = 2 Mbps
Case 2
 Bandwidth 8MHz, use the sine wave of Fig. 3-7 (a)
 8MHz = 5f – f  f = 2MHz
 Data rate = 4 Mbps
Case 3
 Bandwidth 4MHz, use the sine wave of Fig. 3-4 (c)
 4MHz = 3f – f  f = 2MHz
 Data rate = 4 Mbps
 Data Rate vs. Bandwidth
Bandwidth ↑
 Data rate ↑ (compare case 1 & 2)

 Same signal quality

Same bandwidth
 Higher signal quality  lower data rate

 Compare case 1 & 3

Same data rate

 Bandwidth ↑  better signal quality

 Compare case 2 & 3

 Data Rate vs. Bandwidth

In general ,
 any digital waveform will have infinite bandwidth. If we attempt

to transmit this waveform as a signal over any medium, the

transmission system will limit the bandwidth that can be
transmitted.
 greater the bandwidth transmitted, the greater the cost.

 limiting the bandwidth creates distortions, and the greater the

potential for error by the receiver.

Effect of bandwidth on a digital signal

greater the bandwidth

transmitted, the greater
the quality and
accuracy .
Transmission Impairments
signal received may differ from signal transmitted causing:
 analog - degradation of signal quality
 digital - bit errors

most significant impairments are

 attenuation and attenuation distortion
 delay distortion
 noise
 Attenuation
where signal strength falls off with distance
depends on medium
Attenuation introduces three considerations for the transmission

engineer:
1- strong enough to be detected
2-sufficiently higher than noise to receive without error
3-attenuation varies with frequency , for analog signals

Db=10 log10 (Ps/Pd)

Ps is the signal power at the transmitting end (source) of a
communications circuit and Pd is the signal power at the receiving
.end (destination), Ps > Pd
Attenuation
oThe first and second problems are dealt with by attention to signal
strength and the use of amplifiers or repeaters
oTo overcome the third problem , techniques are available for
equalizing attenuation across a band of frequencies.
Delay Distortion
•only occurs in guided media
•propagation velocity varies with frequency

•hence various frequency components arrive at different times

•particularly critical for digital signals

•Equalizing techniques can also be used for delay distortion

Delay Distortion
Noise
Noise :additional signals inserted between transmitter and
receiver.

1- Thermal noise
 due to thermal agitation of electrons
 uniformly distributed
 white noise
 N0=KT(W/Hz)
N0 = noise power density in watts per 1 Hz of bandwidth
k = Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38 * 10-23 J/K
T = temperature, in Kelvin
 Noise
2- Intermodulation noise

When signals at different frequencies share the same transmission

medium, the result may be intermodulation noise. The effect of
intermodulation noise is to produce signals at a frequency that is the
sum or difference of the two original frequencies or multiples of
those frequencies, thus possibly interfering with services at these
frequencies. It is produced by nonlinearities in the transmitter,
receiver, and/or intervening transmission medium.
 Noise
3-crosstalk
an unwanted coupling between signal paths. It can occur by
electrical coupling between nearby twisted pairs or, rarely, coax
cable lines carrying multiple signals. It can also occur when
microwave antennas pick up unwanted signals
4-Impulse noise
 irregular pulses or spikes
 eg. external electromagnetic interference
 short duration
 high amplitude
 a minor annoyance for analog signals
 but a major source of error in digital data
 a noise spike could corrupt many bits
Channel Capacity
max possible data rate on comms channel
is a function of:
 Data rate, in bits per second (bps), at which data can be

communicated
 Bandwidth, as constrained by the transmitter and the nature of the

transmission medium, expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz

 Noise, average level of noise over the communications path

 Error rate, at which errors occur, where an error is the reception of a

1 when a 0 was transmitted or the reception of a 0 when a 1 was

transmitted
limitations due to physical properties
want most efficient use of capacity
 Nyquist Bandwidth
consider noise free channels
if rate of signal transmission is 2B then can carry signal with
frequencies no greater than B
 ie. given bandwidth B, highest signal rate is 2B

for binary signals, 2B bps needs bandwidth B Hz

For multilevel ,can increase rate by using M signal levels
Nyquist Formula is: C = 2B log2M
so increase rate by increasing signals
 at cost of receiver complexity

 limited by noise & other impairments

 Shannon Capacity Formula

consider relation of data rate, noise & error rate

 faster data rate shortens each bit so bursts of noise affects

more bits
 given noise level, higher rates means higher errors

Shannon developed formula relating these to signal to noise

ratio (in decibels)
SNRdb=10 log10 (signal/noise)
Capacity C=B log2(1+SNR)
 theoretical maximum capacity
 get lower in practise
Shannon Capacity Formula
Summary
•data transmission
•Time domain and Frequency domain

•transmission impairments